Speaker
Description
Recent advances in high-intensity laser-driven proton focusing using hemispherical foils have enabled the generation of intense, localized proton beams. When thin foils are irradiated by ultraintense laser pulses (I > 10^19 W/cm²), broadband protons are produced via target-normal-sheath acceleration and subsequently focused by self-generated transient electric fields to 10–50 μm spots. In this talk, I will present recent experimental results demonstrating reproducible proton focusing at high repetition rate, along with scaling studies of focal properties with laser and target parameters. As one of the key applications, I will demonstrate isochoric heating of matter to warm dense matter conditions, reaching electron temperatures of tens of electronvolts using focused proton beams. These results highlight the potential of this approach as a practical platform for proton fast ignition research and other applications requiring precise delivery of energetic ions to dense matter.
| Working group | WG2 |
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